Adverbs

Adverbs modify the meanings of verbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, and other adverbs. Adverbial words usually end in -ly. For example, quickly in the clause come quickly is an adverb because it modifies the verb come. But there are many adverbs that do not end in -ly. For example, fast in the clause run fast is an adverb because it modifies the verb run.

Though we often speak of adverbs as single words, phrases and clauses can also function as adverbs. For example, in the sentence, “He writes with his left hand,” with his left hand is an adverbial phrase because it modifies the verb writes. And in the sentence, “He reads after his family has gone to bed,” after his family has gone to bed is an adverbial clause because it modifies the verb reads.

From -ic adjectives

From adjectives ending in -le

To make an adverb from an adjective that ends a consonant followed by -le, drop the e and add y.For example, gentle becomes gently, and simple becomes simply.

From adjectives ending in -y

To make an adverb from an adjective ending in -y (but not -ly—see the next section) drop the y and add -ily—for example angry becomes angrily, hungry becomes hungrily.

From adjectives ending in -ly

Adjectives that end in ­-ly can make awkward adverbs—for example, friendlily, likelily, livelily, deadlily, cowardlily, lovelily, jollily, uglily, chillily, and so on. Spell-check may catch some of these adverbs (although ours allows friendlily, jollily, and chillily), but that doesn’t mean the words are technically incorrect.

Still, most writers find ways around using the awkward words. For example, instead of writing she walked lovelily, one might instead write, she walked in a lovely manner, she looked lovely when she walked, she walked with loveliness, and so on.

Writers adverbize -ly adjectives so infrequently that we can hardly find any examples on the web. Here are just a couple:

We should talk friendlily and frankly with our partners in Turkey. [Today’s Zaman]

The infrequency of such examples suggests that –lily adverbs aren’t generally considered acceptable, even if they are technically correct.

There are a few -ly adjectives that also function as adverbs. With these, the awkward ending isn’t an issue. A few of the most common ones are daily, early, weekly, monthly, hourly, stately, timely, nightly, and yearly.

Flat adverbs

Some adverbs don’t change from their adjectival forms. These are known as flat adverbs. A few of the most common ones are close, deep, fast, quick, and right. Some of these have corresponding -ly adverbs with which they are interchangeable—for example, come quick and come quickly mean the same thing. Some have corresponding -ly adverbs that have different meanings—right, for example, has several adverbial senses it does not share with rightly. Other flat adverbs are controversial; for instance, some linguistically conservative people might contend that deep cannot correctly function as an adverb and that it should always give way to deeply in adverbial uses.

Adverb placement

Adverbs splitting verb phrases

Old-fashioned grammarians sometimes recommend against using split infinitives. For example, they might recommend saying, I don’t know if you presently are employed, instead of, I don’t know if you are presently employed, even though the latter sounds more natural to most native speakers of English.

But the prejudice against split infinitives and other verb phrases is unfounded. It may seem illogical to place an adverb between an auxiliary word and its verb, but it usually sounds better and is more common in both informal and formal speech and writing.

In these examples, the authors’ avoidance of split verb phrases leads to awkward constructions:

Once ashore, the teenagers quickly were loaded into ambulances and rushed to Schneck Medical Center … [The Republic]

Montgomery officials currently are sifting through development proposals for lower Dexter Avenue … [Montgomery Advertiser]

In each of these cases, the author could make the sentence sound more natural by switching the adverb and the auxiliary verb: … the teenagers were quickly loaded … ; … officials are currently sifting … ; … man’s best friend can soon get together … .